An Office 365 intranet solution that delivers quick productivity improvements

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

An Office 365 intranet solution that delivers quick productivity improvements and is popular with employees

Extensive research & discovery phase led to high levels of adoption for the Office 365 end solution

The brief

Haines Watts is a top 15 chartered accountancy firm with 1100 staff, servicing 35,000 clients from 80 offices across the UK
Having expanded fast through organic growth and acquisition, existing communications and knowledge sharing tools were no longer fit for purpose
Communications were difficult to co-ordinate and risked causing compliance issues with accounting industry regulations. Workflows were paper- and email-based and relied on people knowing the process (see our video below)
Rapid expansion was starting to erode a strong corporate culture of unity and togetherness
HW Group leadership wanted to leverage the combined knowledge of the whole workforce rather than acting as a collection of disparate, standalone local offices

Our approach

Content Formula's consultants carried out an extensive discovery exercise to understand stakeholder needs and user needs. This covered workshops and interviews with people at all levels of the company and from all over the country. Our focus for research is always to understand business challenges and pain points, not to compile a technology wishlist.

We presented our findings to the HW board of directors. The presentation was organised into key themes, insights, verbatims, recommendations, budget and an overall vision for the future intranet. Recommendations included core functionalities, governance considerations, technology choice and success criteria to deliver the board’s objectives.

This research step is key in driving leadership buy-in and securing budget. Crucially, this inclusive research approach leads to high levels of adoption for the end solution.

Our solution was to focus on knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer interaction in order to drive a culture of corporate togetherness and to deliver tangible value to employees and the organisation as a whole. Communications was also a key objective, in particular to improve compliance across all office branches. We used gamification techniques to engage employees to submit high quality content.

Our recommendation was to move the client to a cloud infrastructure on Office 365 and SharePoint Online. Access is always a key consideration for intranet adoption - cloud-based solutions make secure access easy across all devices. An intranet solution integrated with the many tools available in Office 365 also deliver quick productivity improvements and are popular with employees. A user-friendly and attractive interface was key. A common challenge with SharePoint is hiding some of the clunky interface and usability issues whilst adhering to brand guidelines.

The result

The site launched in October 2016.
The communications teams have embraced the site and have stopped reliance on cascade emails.
Haines Watts now has a workflow tool that allows non-technical people to create workflows for things like new starter onboarding (see our video above).
The Social Q&A tool has been a key driver of traffic and engagement. In 4 weeks 87 questions have been submitted which have received 207 answers.
A high proportion of employees have completed their profile and are now receiving endorsements from their colleagues.
The board have committed further resources for ongoing management and enhancements.

An innovative approach to leveraging project-driven knowledge

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

?What If!

An innovative approach to leveraging project-driven knowledge

An innovative approach to leveraging project-driven knowledge

A LiveTiles (formerly known as Wizdom) intranet with custom Knowledge Management features to drive exceptional client service

?What If! helps organisations to innovate new products, services and ways to operate. The company’s two hundred staff use project methodologies to deliver exceptional outcomes for clients.

To drive effective communication and engagement, the company was looking for a modern intranet solution which could integrate with Office 365.

Additionally, the management team wanted a better way to share project knowledge. In any project there are valuable files which are an essential reference point for future work - sparking ideas, driving efficiencies and inspiring clients.

Staff were finding it difficult to tap into this rich seam of knowledge. Once a project was finished valuable documents became invisible, lost in archived Teams spaces, emails or in the file network.

?What if! engaged Content Formula to deliver a new compelling intranet and build an effective Knowledge Management solution for project output which would integrate with Office 365 and Microsoft Teams.

Driving requirements

To create detailed requirements, we held several workshops with key stakeholders and user groups.

It was clear that any solution hinged around the project review process, the moment when a project is formally closed. Teams needed to identify and valuable files – the “project gold” – and tag them accordingly so they could be easily found.To make this process sustainable, the solution had to be quick, easy-to-use and leverage automation.

With requirements agreed, we worked closely with the client to design and build the solution, using wire-framing, prototyping and testing to iterate and improve the final deliverable.

Using the power of LiveTiles

We designed a solution which uses LiveTiles, a leading turnkey intranet product based on SharePoint Online.

LiveTiles offers an attractive interface, effective news publishing, easy-to-manage pages, a strong search and integration with Office 365 tools, as well as a flexible platform to meet future digital workplace ambitions.

This custom search interface allows employees to search for re-usable materials from past projects that were stored in MS Teams.

A simple but clever Knowledge Management solution

We also delivered an innovative custom-built Knowledge Management solution integrated with Microsoft Teams and the intranet.

Project teams can place their most valuable "gold" documents in a special folder within Microsoft Teams. There is also an automated archiving process, where “gold” documents are automatically tagged with project metadata to aid findability and minimise the effort for team members. An attractive intranet page for each project is also created where users can view project details and access documents.

A new custom intranet search interface helps employees find valuable project files based on different criteria. A further integration with Delve and people search allows users to discover projects which other staff have been involved with.

A sustainable solution built around the way people work

At last !What If?! has a sustainable Knowledge Management solution which connects the dots between projects, project knowledge and people. This is driving efficiencies and improving project delivery where staff can leverage the successful approaches and material from previous efforts.

!What if? also has an excellent new intranet which is going from strength-to-strength; streamlining communication, collaboration and knowledge-sharing, while also encouraging the use of Office 365 tools.

MS Teams for live projects are accessible from client sections on the intranet. This is where admins can decommission the Teams of closed projects.

Each archived project has a page on the intranet that lists the documents captured from MS Teams and the project team members.

Introducing Cyril – Haines Watts’ new intranet-based chatbot

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

Introducing Cyril – Haines Watts’ new intranet-based chatbot

How new Intranet chatbot helps to improve efficiency in the company

At Content Formula we strive to work with cutting-edge intranet and digital workplace technology, working in partnership with our clients to implement new solutions. One project we're very excited about is the introduction of a chatbot at accountancy firm Haines Watts.

Chatbots and artificial intelligence are currently receiving a lot of attention and hype. A chatbot allows users to have a conversation in natural language with an automated “bot”. This can help employees to find information they need and complete simple tasks. The bot also uses artificial intelligence to develop a greater understanding of the phrases and language used and can therefore “learn” how to communicate better.

About Haines Watts

We've been working with Haines Watts since 2016. Haines Watts is a top 15 UK accountancy firm with over 1,000 employees located at 80 offices through the UK with a range of services across different sectors. As the firm has expanded rapidly, we’ve worked closely with the digital team to implement a new custom-built Office 365-based intranet called Connect which has successfully driven communication, collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the firm.

With innovative features such as a powerful forum to ask and answer questions and a centre which helps streamline tasks for new joiners, the new chatbot is the latest new intranet feature to improve efficiency.

Meet Cyril

The new chatbot is called Cyril, named after the company's founder, Cyril Haines Watts. Employees can ask Cyril questions in two places – either via Skype for Business or via the intranet - where there is a chat window in the bottom right hand corner of every page.

Currently Cyril is mainly focused on helping users locate content on the intranet. They can ask questions such as "Where can I find information on annual leave?" or "Find me all the people called David in the company.” Users can also type shorter sentences like "Find annual leave".

On being questioned Cyril will return suitable answers or items, sometimes inviting the user to click through to the item they need. Because the bot consumes every single piece of information on the intranet it means many different types of content including news, questions and answers, job vacancies, documents, and expert profiles can be returned.

The bot can also answer several other questions or respond to different commands. For example, if you ask Cyril to "Show me a fact" it will display a small nugget of knowledge about Haines Watts’ history.

How Cyril works

Cyril works by interpreting the natural language phrases entered by employees, trying to match the words to what in chatbot design is called an “intent”. Cyril is basically asking itself ‘what is the user asking me to do?’.

The Microsoft framework we use which turns natural language into an intent is called LUIS (Language Understanding Intelligence Service). LUIS helps translate a phrase into a list of intents we’ve already programmed into Cyril. These intents include 'find an expert', 'find a vacancy', 'find office details', or ‘search everything on the intranet’.

For example, if somebody enters the phrase "Find me a job" LUIS will match that to the "Find a vacancy" intent and then Cyril will go and perform a search query as requested. LUIS also identifies the variable (or “entity” in the phrase) which is any specific criteria or information users are looking for. For example, the phrase "Get me details on the London office" will identify London as the entity and then Cyril can go and return the right content

What’s particularly clever is as more users use different terminology., the bot starts to be able to learn additional phrases and better translate language into intents. Cyril understands more as more people talk to him, his vocabulary continuing to grow and grow intelligently.

Setting up Cyril

Because chatbots can learn language it’s important to train a bot so it can be more effective. We’ve worked closely with the team at Haines Watts to test, train and improve Cyril and, so far, the feedback has been very positive. Now that the bot has been launched to almost all employees it will be fascinating to see how the use of the chatbot develops over the coming months.

One of the factors that has made Cyril more effective is that all content within the intranet is tagged with controlled terms, so findability on the intranet is already strong. Cyril therefore starts with a strong foundation to successfully find the things that employees are asking for.

The future beckons

At the moment Cyril's main function is to help with intranet search, but Haines Watts has big plans to integrate Cyril with other systems. There is great potential to not only automate various tasks and processes to drive efficiency, but also to start to get value from the vast amount of business data and intelligence Haines Watts holds on its systems.

For example, the firm is considering how Cyril could interrogate data from its CRM system and external company information to produce business intelligence reports. Cyril might even be able to automatically suggest and arrange business development calls with key contacts and even put reminders into an individual’s Outlook calendar.

Let’s chat about chatbots

While it’s early days for digital workplace chatbots, we can already see the potential for this new technology. If you’d like to have a preliminary conversation about chatbots and how they might be able to work for your intranet and organisation, then get in touch. And yes, you’ll be talking to a real person from Content Formula, not a bot!

A LiveTiles intranet helping employees to stay informed, access critical information and to learn

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

RSSB

A LiveTiles intranet helping employees to stay informed, access critical information and to learn

Supporting a better, safer railway

RSSB is a membership organisation dedicated to supporting a better, safer railway across Britain through research, standards and analysis.

To help the organisation's two hundred employees improve the UK's rail network, RSSB needed a central place for employees to communicate and collaborate as well as access critical operational documentation.

Seizing the opportunities presented by a move to Office 365, the company also wanted a lively, dynamic intranet which would support employee engagement and provide access to learning materials.

A new LiveTiles intranet

Leveraging a long-term relationship with Content Formula, RSSB's Communications team asked us to help them build a compelling new intranet which would transform internal communications but also make the working day easier for every employee.

To properly scope a solution, we spent time interviewing stakeholders and users about their daily work and the challenges they faced. Taking these diverse needs into account, we recommended implementing a LiveTiles (formerly known as Wizdom) intranet, with all the flexibility and range of functionality it includes.

A compelling and lively homepage

The new intranet homepage has become a focus for what's happening at RSSB - a dynamic snapshot of activity across the organisation. As well as centrally-driven internal communications, it features updates from RSSB's different directorates and a feed of the latest employee blogs. The latest items from RSSB's website are also displayed so employees can see how the organisation is communicating externally.

An attractive banner also sits across every intranet page and can be targeted to different groups, supporting effective messaging and campaigns.

Opening up learning for all

The new intranet also includes a full calendar of learning events where employees can browse a catalogue of available courses and then register for each one. Using LiveTiles's in-built event management functionality, the training calendar is already receiving excellent adoption and providing data and insights into the learning habits and needs of the company.

An intranet which helps employees get things done

To ensure the intranet is wrapped around the way employees work, a task-driven navigation helps users to find the content and services they really need.

As well as finding core information about the company such as strategy and business plans, it was also critical that employees were able to access RSSB's existing Business Management System (BMS), a library of RSSB's operational and procedural documentation. We helped the team to migrate the BMS to SharePoint Online from an on-premises version and integrate it into the heart of the intranet experience. Some customisation also means BMS documents can also be accessed through LiveTiles's attractive Forms, Policies and Procedures library.

Collaboration that really works

Collaboration is key to the way RSSB works. This has also been enabled with LiveTiles's own collaboration workspaces embedded right into the intranet, with suitable templates automatically created for different types of workspace.

Whether it's a working group, an expert forum, a project, a cross-functional team or even a social group, the right space is automatically provisioned based on user need.

Going from strength to strength

Although only a few months old, the new intranet is already having a significant impact on RSSB and its employees.

Communication has improved, collaboration has been strengthened and employees can access critical documents more quickly and efficiently. Meanwhile attendance at courses has increased. The intranet is going from strength to strength.

Automating a process to track acquisitions using Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

Video case study: Xcapital

Automating a process to track acquisitions using Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online

Managing an opportunity pipeline of target acquisitions in Office 365

Xcapital is a UK-based private equity house, providing specialist funding options for ambitious businesses.

With a strong entrepreneurial background, the Manchester-based company needs to constantly identify target acquisitions and perform thorough research before investing.

When considering which companies to invest in, staff must follow a strict due diligence and assessment process that ensures crystal clear decision-making, minimises risk and meets regulatory requirements.

However, the process for carrying out these critical steps was highly inefficient. Staff were primarily using email and the file network resulting in wasted time, incomplete steps and higher risks. It was also difficult to track the progress of each target and get an overview of the entire opportunity pipeline.

Video case study

Delivering automation for a critical process

Xcapital asked Content Formula to create a digital workplace application that could automate the process, ensure staff follow correct procedures and deliver powerful reporting capabilities.

We carried out a discovery period with interviews and workshops to fully understand how employees work and the detail around each stage of the process. Working in close partnership with Xcapital, we defined requirements and started to build a solution.

Leveraging the power of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online

We used the power of Office 365 with Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online to build a new solution to automate the eight steps of the process.

A custom SharePoint Online page displays key data about each target acquisition, including the stage at which the opportunity is at. Seamlessly integrated with the company’s Wizdom-based intranet, users feel they are accessing one system. Employees can see details of those opportunities they are entitled to see.

Workflow using Microsoft Teams ensures the accurate completion of each step

Critical documents are stored within Microsoft Teams. When an opportunity is created, the workflow automatically provisions a Microsoft Teams space with a channel for the first stage of the research process. This channel contains documents that staff must complete.

When ready to pass onto the next stage of the process, the solution checks to makes sure all necessary documentation has been completed. Another channel within the Teams space is then automatically provisioned, this process repeating for each stage. Within Teams staff use discussion threads to record comments and ask questions.

Keeping on top of the process and the pipeline

Using Power BI, new attractive reporting capabilities means managers can get an overview of the entire opportunity pipeline and easily set up new reports going forward.

A fully time-stamped audit trail of changes made to each page, as well as confirmation prompts for staff at each stage, helps drive accuracy, accountability and compliance with the process.

Staff are also able to de-activate an opportunity, with automatic archiving of the space and related documents, or mark those opportunities which need to be monitored.

A core part of the digital workplace

The new system is already a critical and popular application within Xcapital’s digital workplace. Staff can assess target acquisitions far more efficiently and in the right way. Management can monitor the entire opportunity pipeline, not only helping Xcapital but also the ambitious businesses the company invests in.

How we transformed MME’s business process with SharePoint and Office 365

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

How we transformed MME's business process with SharePoint and Office 365

MME asked us to help them make better use of their new Office 365 setup and replace their aging property management system

Many people aren't aware that SharePoint can be much more than just an intranet or document management system (DMS). It's a large toolkit that can be adapted to solve many business problems and drive fundamental business processes.

We have recently been working with a company called Moving Made Easy (MME). They help house builders to sell their properties, by assisting their customers with the sale of their existing homes.

Their business value is provided through the process of selling properties. Any efficiencies that can be introduced into this process immediately affect their bottom line, and also the value to their customers.

MME asked us to help them make better use of their new Office 365 setup and replace their aging property management system.

Although, we spend a lot of time delivering Wizdom intranets these days, we also relish any opportunity to build custom business portals and applications on SharePoint. So, it's fair to say that we bit their hand off.

We're also really proud that this project won MME an award at the 2018 Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards.

Replicate then innovate

Given how critical their current property management system was to their business, the first thing that we had to do was make sure that everything the current system did was understood and, at the very least, replicated in the new system.

To do this we ran a discovery process that involved understanding both the logical processes as well as the technical detail of their existing database and datasets.

Future proof

We often get asked to make things "Future proof". In practice it's difficult to anticipate business changes coming down the line. However, there are a few things you can do to mitigate the risks here:

Build on a platform that is being continually updated and is evolving
Build on a platform that has a large community of developers who can work with it
Avoid too much customisation – stick to configuring the existing features where ever possible

With these considerations in mind, we developed their new deal management system on SharePoint Online.

SharePoint handles the user profiles and permissions, as well as the document and data storage. We built a custom interface for the account managers to keep track of all their property deals – leveraging SharePoint search for property lookups etc.

SharePoint search provides an efficient way to interrogate a large set of data (deals or customers etc.)

Productivity revolution

The improved interface and automated features (including integration with the Land Registry database) mean a huge uplift in the productivity of the MME account managers. The new system saves them so much time that they can handle three times the number of deals that they could when using the old system.

As well as Land Registry data, the system also integrates with Google Maps and Street View and fetches information about the property automatically

Dashboards and reports

In addition to the core system, we have also used Power BI to provide management and customers with a real time view of important data including the number of close deals in the week and contact reports showing the details of all property valuations and viewings.

The dashboard allows account managers to quickly access their latest and favourited deals and records

Constantly evolving

Rather than just standing still, we are now working with our customer to continually evolve and add to the capabilities of the system as part of an ongoing contract. This allows us to constantly refine the system and ensure that it delivers more and more value to the business.

All property valuations are stored in the system and the sales process that follows is fully modelled

Detailed user research and technical discovery to transform the digital employee experience

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

Legal & General

Detailed user research and technical discovery to transform the digital employee experience

Evolving the digital employee experience

Legal & General is a multinational financial services company offering insurance, asset management and other services. With a strong heritage and brand, the company has invested to dramatically improve the customer experience across it’s various digital touchpoints.

Legal & General now wants to take the same approach to create a powerful and personalised digital employee experience across the UK business that will help staff achieve goals and feel part of one company.

Currently employees have different digital experiences depending on which part of Legal & General they are based in; multiple versions of Office 365 are deployed, and digital workplace maturity varies. The team are considering numerous improvements, including investing in a new group-level Wizdom intranet. There are also opportunities to identify cost savings and drive efficiencies.

Identifying the opportunities and the challenges

In order to develop a strategy and roadmap to transform the digital employee experience, Legal & General engaged Content Formula to undertake a detailed research and discovery project to gain a thorough understanding of the needs of users, and identify the opportunities and barriers presented by the complex technical landscape.

Carrying out detailed workshops and interviews

Working closely with the Head of HR and the Head of Group Digital, we sought to understand how different user groups worked across the organisation, what their pain points were and what their vision for a compelling digital employee experience might look like.

We carried out six workshops across the country, featuring a cross-section of employees from customer-facing roles through to content owners using the intranet. We also undertook a series of detailed user interviews.

Interviewing stakeholders and legacy intranet review

Senior stakeholders were also interviewed and contributed to the workshops, making sure we were aligned to the strategic objectives of Legal & General’s management.

Additionally, we carried out a heuristic review of the current intranet and legacy CMS, as well as absorb previous research carried out by the digital workplace team.

the technical landscape

We undertook a detailed technical discovery exercise, reviewing where each entity was on its own digital workplace journey, and the relative state of maturity. We considered factors such as levels of adoption as well as critical elements such as security and privacy concerns.

A detailed report with strategy, roadmap and recommendations

We produced a final report with findings and recommendations for a digital workplace strategy. This included a high-level roadmap and recommended approach, identifying three phases starting with focusing on the foundations needed to truly deliver the best digital workplace possible.

We also identified specific opportunities and challenges, including use cases for Office 365, areas for customisation, how to advance collaboration and detailed recommendations for deploying the new group Wizdom intranet.

A firm understanding for the future

Our findings have already been very well-received. Legal & General now has a deep understanding and detailed recommendations for the next stage of their digital workplace journey and are actively planning the programme of work that will transform the company’s digital employee experience.

A custom app to streamline invoice management processes, driving efficiency and reducing risk

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

Janssen

A custom app to streamline and standardise invoice management processes, driving efficiency and reducing risk

Janssen is a global pharmaceutical company owned by Johnson & Johnson, employing 40,000 staff around the world. The company continues to research and develop leading medicines, and is currently developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

A custom solution to transform the process

In order to ease the administrative burden, reduce risks and errors, drive efficiencies and provide better visibility of the invoice payment process, Janssen’s finance team engaged Content Formula to create a custom solution that would integrate seamlessly into the company’s Microsoft 365-driven digital workplace.

Drawing on our expertise in developing custom Microsoft 365 apps, we suggested a Power App; working in combination with other 365 tools, this would digitise the experience and automate approval workflows, helping to standardise and streamline the invoicing process.

Working in partnership

Following agreement with the client, we received detailed requirements and set to work on designing and building the solution.

We worked closely with the Janssen team throughout the project. We also followed an approach whereby once deployed, the tool could then be scaled and improved, based on real user feedback.

Easy to use – from invoice submission to payment

The financial tracking app uses a Power App to create highly intuitive interfaces for entering data and reporting, with a SharePoint list storing information, and Power Automate driving necessary workflows in the backend.

The app standardises the process for approving and tracking invoices from submission to payment: a supplier submits their invoice via a SharePoint-based form available externally, then notifications drive two stages of approval for the relevant business unit, with the finance function adding relevant information at each step, before the invoice is finally approved for payment.

Increasingly the visibility of the process

Clean and intuitive interfaces and a powerful search capability allow the team to enter the necessary data and easily track the progress of any invoice, ensuring smooth progress to payment.

Simple overviews provide critical visibility of the invoice against each agreed budget, flagging up potential issues, and providing insights into overall spending on different projects. Reporting provides the ability to find an invoice by department, year and PO number.

Making life easier for the team

Initially, the app has been launched to one business unit for one supplier, with various improvements and tweaks made based on detailed feedback from the team.

The finance team are delighted with the initial results from the app, commenting that it is “making life easier”.

A wider roll-out

The team are now excited about a wider roll-out of the app across multiple business units and involving multiple suppliers, saving huge amounts of time, eliminating pain points and providing greater oversight on costs.

Future evolution is also being considered, including producing more detailed reporting and even providing limited access to suppliers.

A comprehensive intranet based on out-of-the-box SharePoint for rapid implementation

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

Amber Infrastructure

A comprehensive intranet based on out-of-the-box SharePoint for a rapid and cost-effective implementation

Amber Infrastructure is a specialist international infrastructure investment management group, providing a range of expert services. The company works across a variety of sectors including transport, social accommodation and sustainable energy.

In order to drive highly effective communication across eight busy global offices and take full advantage of its investment in Microsoft 365, the company was seeking to rapidly implement a SharePoint intranet.

A rapid implementation

The company engaged Emperor, a London-based digital agency, to deliver the new intranet. Recognising our extensive SharePoint intranet expertise and drawing on successful collaboration on previous projects, Emperor got in touch with us to steer the technical aspects of the project.

In order to meet a very ambitious launch schedule and keep costs low, the team at Amber Infrastructure signed up to Content Formula’s SharePoint Intranet Accelerator Essential package - a service to rapidly implement a SharePoint intranet.

A complete intranet with no customisations

The package chosen by Amber Infrastructure delivers all the essential, core capabilities of a modern intranet, but relies solely on SharePoint out-of-the-box with no customisations.

This not only allows all of Amber Infrastructure’s 120 employees to access a highly successful and attractive intranet, but also one that is easy to manage and future-proofed with close alignment to the Microsoft 365 roadmap.

Working in partnership

Working in close partnership with the Amber Infrastructure and the Emperor team, we ran a requirements workshop to scope out intranet requirements, discuss options and understand branding preferences.

Based on the workshop outcomes, we executed the technical set-up, and then prepared and tested the intranet before running a training session to hand over the intranet to the Amber Infrastructure team in order to upload content. We provided ongoing support up to the launch, with the whole project delivered in just four weeks.

A hub for news and information

Amber Infrastructure’s new intranet is already proving to be an essential resource. The attractive design uses the familiar designs of SharePoint modern blended with Amber Infrastructure’s logo and colour palette.

Staff access news on the homepage with an eye-catching carousel and can find essential updates and information across a number of department and team pages. Other popular homepage features include a world clock and a calendar of global events and holidays.

The go-to place for knowledge

The intranet is also providing one source of truth for company knowledge. A central policy library means employees can always find the latest version of key documents. A special section for starters allows new hires to hit the ground running on their first day, while a brand portal provides access to brand guidelines and digital assets.

A comprehensive people directory based on Delve ensures staff can find their colleagues and locate company experts, driving better communication. Amber Infrastructure are also delighted with SharePoint’s powerful out-of-the-box search capabilities, helping employees find the information they need quickly and effortlessly.

Ongoing support

To continue to ensure the intranet remains successful, Amber International has signed an on-demand support agreement with Content Formula so they can leverage our expertise when they need it, rather than breaking the bank every time they want a helping hand.

Working together

Reflecting on the success of the project, Dan Hawtrey, Content Formula’s Manging Director and Founder, comments: “It’s great to see a highly effective intranet get up and running in weeks. SharePoint out-of-the-box provides exceptional opportunities for small and medium-sized companies to launch an excellent corporate intranet at a fraction of the normal cost and effort. We’re thrilled that the team at Amber Infrastructure chose to sign up to our SharePoint Intranet Accelerator Essential package.”

"Content Formula could not have made the process run any smoother. They kept ourselves and Amber Infrastructure reliably informed throughout the project while answering anything and everything we asked in a prompt, friendly and knowledgeable way. The final product is great, met all client requirements and was delivered on time and budget. We look forward to our next engagement with the team at Content Formula."

George Gibbons, Digital Analyst, Emperor

Delivering hyper-targeted messaging to frontline employees without email

Posted on 13 June 202213 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

TTEC

Delivering hyper-targeted messaging to frontline employees without email

TTEC is a global provider of customer experience services, supplying solutions focused on strategy, technology, training and outsourced customer support to a large client base. Headquartered in the US, the company has a workforce of 50,000 employees, many of whom work on client premises or at home.

Communicating with a remote, distributed frontline workforce has proved challenging, particularly in sending out targeted messages. All employees have email accounts which are used for internal communications; however, email has proved an inefficient and poorly adopted medium, not fully justifying the significant annual licensing costs.

Targeted messaging for the frontline

TTEC approached Content Formula with a view to creating an alternative approach to deliver targeted messaging to frontline workers that would be far more successful and cost-effective. In particular, the team wanted to build on the success of the LiveTiles intranet "Mosaic" which we had already delivered.

Working closely with the team at TTEC, we scoped, designed, developed and delivered a user-friendly messaging feature with hyper-targeting capabilities directly built into the existing intranet experience.

Super-easy messaging for communicators and managers

Taking advantage of detailed Active Directory profile data, the solution - based on SharePoint, LiveTiles Everywhere and Azure Cosmos DB - allows internal communicators and team managers to send messages to different groups and individuals throughout TTEC.

Using a simple content editor accessed through the intranet, administrators can create and format a message with images, then select the individuals or different groups they want to send it to.

Exceptional targeting capabilities

A simple interface allows administrators to select multiple attributes to pinpoint message recipients. Dynamic filters allow groups to be defined by country, location, department, level of seniority, type of employee, client team, team supervisor and more; lists of recipients can also be further refined down to the individual level. The enterprise directory can alternatively be searched by name or employee ID.

Administrators can control the settings for each email, asking for confirmation of read receipts, marking items important, allowing replies and specifying expiry dates. In-built analytics also show views, likes and numbers of comments once a message has been sent.

Messaging that is always relevant

So far, the new messaging capability has had an excellent response from both users and the communications team.

The attractive interface brings messaging directly into the intranet that employees regularly access; more messages are getting read, because the advanced targeting means that individuals are confident the messages they receive will be relevant to them.

Communicators appreciate the near-effortless ability to target messaging to an unusual level of granularity, also meaning that managers and supervisors are using the tool for team-wide and even one-to-one communications.

Reducing costs, meeting privacy challenges

The solution has also significantly reduced costs as TTEC has been able to scale back the level of Microsoft 365 licensing needed to make the tool operational, as well as retire an unloved and underused email solution.

Further, the solution is completely within TTEC’s own Azure environment, ensuring that both regulatory commitments relating to data privacy and stringent security standards are met.

A solution proofed for the future

The TTEC team and Content Formula are planning to evolve the capabilities of the platform, for example, by extending analytics and reporting, while also using the API (enabled by an Azure function app) to allow automatic system notifications to be viewed through the tool.

There is also the possibility of being able to surface messages in other systems such as Microsoft Teams, an employee onboarding system or even in the Windows 10 or 11 environment.

The system has been designed and built in such a way that it is extremely scalable and fully future-proofed to meet the needs of TTEC for the coming years.

An Office 365 intranet solution that delivers quick productivity improvements and is popular with employees

The brief

Our approach

The result

?What If!

An innovative approach to leveraging project-driven knowledge

Driving requirements

Using the power of LiveTiles

A simple but clever Knowledge Management solution

A sustainable solution built around the way people work

Introducing Cyril – Haines Watts’ new intranet-based chatbot

About Haines Watts

Meet Cyril

How Cyril works

Setting up Cyril

The future beckons

Let’s chat about chatbots

RSSB

Supporting a better, safer railway

A new LiveTiles intranet

A compelling and lively homepage

Opening up learning for all

An intranet which helps employees get things done

Collaboration that really works

Going from strength to strength

Video case study: Xcapital

Managing an opportunity pipeline of target acquisitions in Office 365

Video case study

Delivering automation for a critical process

Leveraging the power of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online

Workflow using Microsoft Teams ensures the accurate completion of each step

Keeping on top of the process and the pipeline

A core part of the digital workplace

How we transformed MME's business process with SharePoint and Office 365

Replicate then innovate

Future proof

Productivity revolution

Dashboards and reports

Constantly evolving

Legal & General

Evolving the digital employee experience

Identifying the opportunities and the challenges

Carrying out detailed workshops and interviews

Interviewing stakeholders and legacy intranet review

the technical landscape

A detailed report with strategy, roadmap and recommendations

A firm understanding for the future

Janssen

Working in partnership

Easy to use – from invoice submission to payment

Increasingly the visibility of the process

Making life easier for the team

A wider roll-out

Amber Infrastructure

A rapid implementation

A complete intranet with no customisations

Working in partnership

A hub for news and information

The go-to place for knowledge

Ongoing support

Working together

TTEC

Targeted messaging for the frontline

Super-easy messaging for communicators and managers

Exceptional targeting capabilities

Messaging that is always relevant

Reducing costs, meeting privacy challenges

A solution proofed for the future

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